Let’s be clear about one thing – the American Freedom Defense Initiative got exactly what they wanted yesterday. It could not have turned out any better for those ‘defenders’ of America’s first amendment (and, just as a bonus, the second amendment as well).

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There must be some really rowdy celebrations going on in the AFDI’s headquarters today. They did exactly what they set out to do, making international news in the process. They held an event – a contest – with a $10,000 prize for the person who drew the best cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The purported purpose of this event was ‘defending free speech’. I guess they were able to make some kind of idiotic argument that if people didn’t print cartoons of Muhammad, then…freedom of speech was dead? Forever? I’m not sure. What I am sure about is that this was not at all about freedom of speech. It was about creating shock, antagonizing people, and specifically hating on Muslims.

If you want to attack something about Muslim culture, or the religion of Islam, there are a few targets that make sense. The continued subjugation of women in dozens of countries around the world, for example. But the fact that their religion says not to depict Muhammad in drawings or statues? Maybe the most innocuous thing in the entire Quran. So why do it?

Well, to hopefully provoke a violent reaction from the extremist Muslims that would surely become incensed at this event. And…success! The AFDI spent a ton of money hiring FORTY police officers to guard the event, fully expecting and fully hoping that it would end this way. Two gunmen show up, open fire on the contest, get immediately gunned down by the police. Wins all around! The only people who died are the two bad guys. There is no defense for those bad guys, they are assholes who are willing to kill over this (otherwise utterly innocuous) religious belief. Who could defend them? No one.

This allows the AFDI to continue spreading their message of anti-Muslim hate, because now they have a specific concrete anecdote. It’s us vs. the Muslims, get it? They HATE free speech, we LOVE it so much that we’ve put our lives on the line to defend it. But this, of course, is bullshit.

What they are doing is akin to the second-amendment ‘defenders’ who walk around school grounds and into Denny’s strapped with AK-47 assault rifles because RIGHTS. Who specifically attempt to frighten the hell out of children and Sunday brunch attendees so that when the police show up they can shout at the top of their lungs about defending the constitution or some other stupid thing. The American second amendment gives you the right to bear arms. It does not give you the duty to carry them into an elementary school. Similarly, the first amendment gives you the right to free speech. It does not give you the duty to say the most offensive thing you can dream up in your weird little racist brain.

I equated the AFDI to the Westboro Baptist Church on Twitter this morning. I took some backlash from ultra-conservative nutbags (who Tweeted mean things to me, then immediately blocked me so I couldn’t respond…which made me giggle. It’s about ‘free speech’, right?). But I absolutely stand by that. They are the same thing, an ultra-right-wing hate group who stages a series of publicity stunts to gain fame and advance their bigoted agenda. They are bad people. And just because the guys who opened fire on the ‘be as douchy as you possibly can’ contest were worse people doesn’t make it okay.

There are no good guys in this whole story. Only assholes and psychopaths.